THE
EXECUTIONER’S
TALE
@cwodtke
www.cwodtke.com

Once upon the time there was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing
the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.
“Maybe,” the farmer replied.
The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.
“Maybe,” replied the old man.
The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to
offer their sympathy on his misfortune.
“Maybe,” answered the farmer.
The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they
passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.
“Maybe,” said the farmer.

RULES
When I joined Linkedin, many
people said “huh, that’s
interesting.” Many did not know
why I’d join a resume site.
When I joined Myspace, they said
good luck. It looked hard, but
possible.
When I joined Zynga they all
congratulated me on landing in one
of the hottest spots in the valley.
I’ve learned to say “We’ll see.”

“FROM THEIR FIRST MEETING IN 1992 IN GENEVA, GEHRY AND MILUNIĆ BEGAN TO
ELABORATE MILUNIĆ'S ORIGINAL IDEA OF A BUILDING CONSISTING OF TWO PARTS, STATIC
AND DYNAMIC ("YIN AND YANG"), WHICH WERE TO SYMBOLIZE THE TRANSITION OF
CZECHOSLOVAKIA (CZECHIA) FROM A COMMUNIST REGIME TO A PARLIAMENTARY
DEMOCRACY” WIKIPEDIA

SCIENCE AND GUT

DIRECTION
DECISIONS
DEDICATION
repeat

FIND YOUR
NORTH STAR

•Conversion is a crap north star
DESIGN FOR AN
EMOTION

Surprise & delight

AFFECTIONATE
compassionate
friendly
loving
open hearted
sympathetic
tender
warm
ENGAGED
absorbed
alert
curious
engrossed
enchanted
entranced
fascinated
interested
intrigued
involved
spellbound
stimulated
CONFIDENT
empowered
open
proud
safe
secure
EXCITED
amazed
animated
ardent
aroused
astonished
dazzled
eager
energetic
enthusiastic
giddy
invigorated
lively
passionate
surprised
vibrant
HOPEFUL
expectant
encouraged
optimistic
(c) 2005 by Center for Nonviolent Communication Website: www.cnvc.org
GRATEFUL
appreciative
moved
thankful
touched
INSPIRED
amazed
awed
wonder
JOYFUL
amused
delighted
glad
happy
jubilant
pleased
tickled
EXHILARATED
blissful
ecstatic
elated
enthralled
exuberant
radiant
rapturous
thrilled
PEACEFUL
calm
clear headed
comfortable
centered
content
equanimous
fulfilled
mellow
quiet
relaxed
relieved
satisfied
serene
still
tranquil
trusting
REFRESHED
enlivened
rejuvenated
renewed
rested
restored
revived
AFFECTIONATE
compassionate
friendly
loving
open hearted
sympathetic
tender
warm

PEACE
beauty communion ease harmony order

Men like order too

There is no shortage
of “organization
porn” on the web.
We have a deep
seated dream of a
place of tidy
harmony.
Peace and order is big business

Facebook misses the boat with photos.
Where are the organization tools?

Yahoo Search
Fast
Easy
Magic
When we redesigned search in 2001, we polled
our users to find out what they valued. That
was our north star

Google
to organize the world‘s
information and make it
universally accessible and
useful
We all know Google’s North Star

Eatclub
Bring Joy to Work
through Food
When I was working with startup Eatclub, we
developed a North Star to guide strategic
choices, messaging and design.

WHAT’S YOUR
NORTH STAR

DECIDING

Safety in Scenarios
Move from
“We have to decide”
To “let’s pretend we’ve
already decided”

“I looked out the window at the Ferris wheel of the Great America
amusement park revolving in the distance, then I turned back to Gordon
and I asked,
“If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what do you
think he would do?” Gordon answered without hesitation,
“He would get us out of memories.” I stared at him, numb, then said,
“Why shouldn’t you and I walk out the door, come back and do it
ourselves?” Andy Grove

Let’s Pretend
• We are a B2B company
• We built a sales team
• We hired a CEO
You can “try on” ideas, and work them
through as if they were your decided strategy,
to see if they make sense.

THE CONE OF UNCERTAINTY
I can predict
what will
happen
tomorrow
I can guess
about next
month
I’m lying to
myself if I say
I know what’s
happening
next year

NOW
Headline test
Editing
features
Bug fixes
Twitter
integration

Q2
NOW
Headline test
Editing
features
Bug fixes
Twitter
integration
Control panel
CRM
integration

Q2
Q3
NOW
Headline test
Editing
features
Bug fixes
Twitter
integration
Control panel
CRM
integration
refactor

Q4
Q2
Q3
NOW
Headline test
Editing
features
Bug fixes
Twitter
integration
Control panel
CRM
integration
refactor
World
domination

Q4
Q2
Q3
NOW
Test with
partner
Headline test
Editing
features
Bug fixes
Twitter
integration
Five partners
launched,
handheld
Shard DB
User profile
pages
Platform for
3rd parties,
beta
Ad network
Open
program
Support
pages

You will always have to both pick a direction and
work with what you’ve got. Sometimes that means
hitting a goal, sometimes that means picking a new
one.

Act as if it were true
Until it’s proven wrong
Then pivot

DEDICATION
TO YOUR GOALS
TO YOUR TEAM

OKRs
Objectives
Key results

OKR example
Successfully launch
blogging platform
• 10 influencers
• 1500 organic signups in week 1
• 99% uptime

OKRs
O: Dream
KR: Success criteria

OKRs
O: Qualitative
KR: Quantitative

OKRs
Time bound
Cascading
Hard (but not impossible)

OKR example
Successfully launch
blogging platform
• 10 influencers
• 1500 organic signups in week 1
• 99% uptime

OKR example
Successfully launch
blogging platform
• 99.8% uptime
• 2 backend hires
• Load speed <2sec

OKR example
Successfully launch
blogging platform
• Usable blogging tools (<5
minor errors)
• NPS of 60
• Exec signoff by 10/5

ROADMAP
WITH FRIENDS

M
P

Viable
Desired by the market
Buildable by the company
Profitable for the
company

How do we
know what the
market wants?
We make them chose

Capability
Which would you move?
Why?
• Add photos
• Delete
photos
• Share with
friends
Soon
• Make
collections
• Share
publicly
Later
• Remove red
eye
• Crop
• Filters
Much Later

TIPS
• Don’t make customers imagine
anything – show mocks
• Make the items moveable
(post-its!)
• Must lose one to get one –
swapping ONLY

PRACTICE BEING
PSYCHIC

A roadmap of little experiments
• Item
• How much effort
• How much return
Guessing is fine.
The more you guess, the better you get at
guessing.

A roadmap of results
Item
Expected Expected Actual
effort
result
effort
Avatar
12 days +10
21 days
makers
min/ave
Chat
15 days +25K
8 days
daily
Subscrip- 20 days 75K/mo
tion
passive
service
Actual
result
+8
min/ave
+15 daily

CADENCE

Commitment
• Mondays are for
promises
• Fridays are for winners

Priorities this week
P1
P1
P1
Close deal with DA
Three directions for cross
promo bar
Prototype promo bar
functionary
OKR Confidence
Objective: Establish clear value as a promo
partner with indie community
KR: 8 partners running on platform 5/1
KR: Traffic to partners equal to internal 5/10
KR: Revenue of 250K
5/10
Mondays each team lead Key Risk Factors:
shares:
• Next 4 weeks -Priorities ( to get Health & make
Week’s Objectives
Org help
commitment)
Team Health:
A/B test promo bar designs
• Near term roadmap (heads up!)direction
Team struggling with
change
Sign up 3 customers for program
• OKR confidence
Code Health:
Establish base price
• Key health indicators
Yellow
Green
Launch one on-internal client

Priorities this week
P1
P1
P1
Close deal with DA
Three directions for cross
promo bar
Prototype promo bar
functionary
Next 4 weeks - Objectives
A/B test promo bar designs
Sign up 3 customers for program
Establish base price
Launch one on-internal client
OKR Confidence
Objective: Establish clear value as a promo
partner with indie community
KR: 8 partners running on platform 5/1
KR: Traffic to partners equal to internal 5/10
KR: Revenue of 250K
5/10
Key Risk Factors:
Org Health
Team Health:
Yellow
Team struggling with direction
change
Code Health:
Green

Weekly Status Email
• OKRS
• Priorities 3
• Last week’s priorities
• Risks & Blockers
• Notes
Read more here: http://www.eleganthack.com/the-dreaded-weekly-status-email/

Celebrations

Celebrations
Engineering demos

Celebrations
Engineering demos
Design demos

Celebrations
Engineering demos
Design demos
Sales & Bizdev shares wins

Celebrations
Engineering demos
Design demos
Sales & Bizdev shares wins
Beer

Everybody needs bragging time
• Motivates team to have
something to share
• Makes you feel like part
of something special
• Show progress

DIRECTION
DECISIONS
DEDICATION
CELEBRTIONS
repeat

Thank You
Please contact me if you need help setting
up this system at your company.
I advise and consult.
@cwodtke
www.cwodtke.com

APPENDIX

Priorities this week
P1
OKR Confidence
Objective
P1
Key results #1
Key results #1
Key results #1
P1
Key Risk Factors:
Next 4 weeks - Objectives
5/10
5/10
5/10
Org Health
Team Health:
Code Health:
Yellow
Yellow